Elections in Korea

June 2nd was Election Day in South Korea. I love the way they honor Election Day, it is a national holiday and schools, banks, and other public businesses are closed in honor of this day. Also, in preparation for Election Day, Korea has trucks driving around from early morning to late night. The trucks drive around playing music most of the time and other parts of the day they have different representatives for each candidate speaking about why they should elect a specific candidate. I think this is a cool way to get people involved, get them out to vote and really support your country.

On another note, one of my phone students told me that most Koreans will vote for someone based on their last name and blood relation to them.  Remember, Koreans mostly come from one specific race or ancestory... Korean. So, they can track their ancestors as far as a 100 years. My student asked if this is the way Americans vote... uh no, its even more difficult for us to track our heritage back 50 years, let alone 100 years! However, if you are voting on the basis of family name and relation, the purpose of voting is lost.  I explained to him that we vote based on the merits the candidate possess to serve all people in a country, state, city, school, etc.  In short, my student did vote for someone named Kim b/c they share the same family name, and b/c he believes the candidate is his blood relative, so he should vote for him.  Lastly, the entire family must vote the same way, this is just another Korean tradition. Is it right or wrong? Well, I guess it depends on your definition of whats just and what is unjust. *shrug shoulders* If you ask me I won't be voting that way... I will still base my decision on merit and my personal opinions of the candidates character.

Finally, another student mentioned to me that he would not be voting, well he wasn't sure if he was going to vote. He doesn't like the candidates, he thinks it is a silly competition, the candidates never do anything, and probably another reason he doesn't vote is for the reason I just listed above. Voting for someone, but not basing your decision on merits is almost as bad as not voting. However, how would he feel if his right was taking away from him? Something to ponder, so get out and vote Korea!